Freeze
by R0S3 TYL3R
Summary: The Doctor needs help, but he needs it from a Time Lord. And he's the only one. So, that means there's only one person who can help him, and that person might be a bit reluctant about it - seeing as how it's him. NOT COMPLETE; UP FOR ADOPTION!
1. Chapter One: DAROTE

**Author's Note:** Short chapter, but the others will be longer.

**Disclaimer:** O fpm'y pem Fpvypt Ejp.

* * *

Freeze

**Chapter One: DAROTE**

The Doctor stared at the machine. He looked like a pinstriped statue.

"What is it?" asked Martha, her eyes flitting from the big chunky silver machine to her Time Lord companion.

"It's- wait, it can't-" he shook out of his trance and ran up to it, fiddling with some of the little knobs and levers.

"What is it?" she asked again, walking up to join him. She'd never seen him this worried.

"No, stay back!" he warned, half turning, stretching a warning arm toward her. "Don't go near it."

He pressed a final few buttons, there was a beep, and he looked at something on a screen. Martha craned her neck to see it.

"No..."

She waited patiently for him to tell her what it was.

"It can't... these shouldn't even _exist _anymore!"

"That seems to happen a lot around you," she cut in.

He seemed to remember she was there. He turned around quickly, and she was shocked. There was panic in his eyes.

"This is Time Lord technology," he said, his eyes wide.

"Well, isn't that a good thing?" she asked as he turned back around.

"No. I'm afraid that's not a very good thing."

She stepped up, trying to see what the Doctor was looking at.

"Don't!" His arm was raised again, his eyes full of intensity. "Don't come within two feet of it."

There was a pause as he pushed more buttons, watching the screen. "Oh no. This is bad."

"What? What's bad?" Martha took another step forward, disregarding his warning.

"This is very bad. This is very, very bad."

"Why? What is it?"

"Go back to the TARDIS."

"What-"

"Go. I'll meet you there."

He didn't even look around at her before she left. He was too engrossed in the machine. Making a stubborn face, Martha backed away and leaned, hidden, against a wall, not letting the Doctor leave her sight. He was mumbling to himself.

"It's going to... no, why would anyone let it do that? I have to check the temporal displacement analysis, but the dial doesn't seem to be here..."

And with that, he left the room, in a different direction from where the TARDIS was parked. Martha shook her head. She walked forward, checking the hallway to see if he was returning. She looked at the screen he had been peering at. 'DAROTE,' it read. She wondered if it was related to the TARDIS. She leaned on the DAROTE, scrutinizing the screen.

And that's how he found her.


	2. Chapter Two: Finding the Doctor

**A/N:** Hey, I'm sorry for forgetting about this. Mostly I dropped it because, well, I was stuck and didn't really care enough to keep going. I probably wouldn't have updated at all, except that the part I'm stuck at is after chapter 5, so I figure I owe you guys what I have. Then one of you could be my co-author or beta or something and help me out if you want. ^_~  
Oh, and thanks to Sanguine Ink for reminding me. See? Reviews DO work!

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**Chapter Two**

**Finding the Doctor**

"Oh, no, no, no, _no, no!"_

He grabbed Martha by the waist and pulled her away from the machine. Her expression, confused and thoughtful, was frozen on her face. Her arms were extended before her, her body curved forward in a studious position.

"Humans can be so ignorant! It's a wonder they even survive on that rock they were left with!" He carried her back to the TARDIS, laying her down in his bed. He was fuming as he left and entered the control room.

"Just my luck, isn't it, that the one time she isn't here, the one time that she can't help me, is the _one_ time I actually need it!" He hit the console, causing a loose device to fall off. He sat down, his head in his hand, thinking.

"It can't be touched by humans. That marks off... everyone I know. It can't be touched by Sycorax, Daleks, Wirrns, Foamasi, Gelth, Raxacoricofallapatorians, Malmooth, even stinking Zygons can't touch it, I'm the only Time Lord left, it's going to expand and there's _no way to stop it!"_ The words rolled off of his tongue, fast and panicked. He got up and kicked the bottom of the console, running his hand through his hair. Instinctively, he then reached his hand down to rub the TARDIS as apology.

"There's nothing I can do, it needs two people to operate..." His voice was soft now, and he was pacing around the console. "There's no one else to help..."

Then a thought struck him. A thought that shouldn't exist, one that he shouldn't even think about considering, one that violated the most important law of Time....

One that couldn't, shouldn't be possible, one that could very possibly unravel the very fabric of the universe. One that should never, under any circumstances, be complied with or acted upon, one that breaks every law laid by the Council and is only ever, ever, _ever_ valid if the Council sets it up and watches it personally...

The only one that made any sense.

"There's only one man who can help me," the Doctor said, panting, his voice weak from yelling, "and he won't like it one bit."

* * *

"How long have I been gone?"

Rose stood, already halfway to the Powell Estate. The Doctor smiled.

"About twelve hours."

They laughed a little together, Rose's eyes scanning the familiar scape. "Right. I won't be long; I just want to see my mum."

"What are you going to tell her?"

"I don't know. I've been to the year five billion, and I've only been gone, what, twelve hours?" She laughed. "No, I'll just tell her I spent the night at Shareen's. See you later." She took a few steps toward her home, then stopped herself and gestured at the Doctor. "Don't you disappear."

She jogged off, heading toward the stairs. The Doctor leaned back on the TARDIS, looking around. He reached up to rub his head. Nearly bald. Big ears, big nose. He hoped whenever he regenerated next, he'd look better than this.

Then, something caught his eye. A poster, half taped to a pole, fluttering in the wind, a familiar face plastered across it. Walking quickly over to it, he flattened it out and read the details.

_Oh no,_ he thought to himself, starting to run over to Jackie's apartment.

He left the alley quiet. The breeze lifted some papers and sent them floating across the pavement, making soft crinkling sounds.

Then, a noise sounded. It was loud and it caught the attention of a certain passing Mickey Smith, who proceeded to gasp and run over to the appearing blue box. As soon as it was solid, he pounded on the doors.

"Doctor! Are you in there? Rose! Where have you been? We were worried sick! Rose!"

A man opened the door, shoving him back. He had longish brown hair, he was very, very thin, and he was younger than the man who should be emerging.

"Where's the Doctor?" Mickey asked, panting. "Where's Rose? Who are you?"

The man rolled his eyes, turning back into the TARDIS.

"Wait!" Mickey said, following him in.

"Hey, now that's just rude," the man said, turning around. "You don't just go around letting yourself into other people's homes, do you?"

"Where's the Doctor?" Mickey asked, ignoring the complaint.

"I don't know. Go away." He ignored Mickey and pretended to do something important with the console.

"Where is he? He took Rose for a whole year and she never even thought about me." His voice took a new tone, almost whimpering.

The man put a hand on his shoulder. "I don't know where he is. Maybe if you went home and took a little nap he'd turn up somewhere. Watched pots never boil." He pushed Mickey out the door and locked it.

"He's a rude man," Mickey muttered to himself, making his way back home.


	3. Chapter Three: Takeoff

**Chapter Three**

**Takeoff**

The Doctor sighed. Mickey, Mickey, Mickey. Why did he always mess these things up?

He leaned against the door to his room, looking at Martha. She was still confused, still quizzical, still calculating. Still leaning against the metal of the DAROTE. Frozen in time...

He went out to the console room, going over other options for the fourteenth time. He looked at his watch and stood up, brushing off his suit. He took a deep breath and thought about what he was going to do.

Checking his watch again, the Doctor walked outside. He turned around the corner to see a man in a leather jacket, with hardly any hair, pulling out keys for a blue box. Taking another deep breath to calm his senses, he jogged out toward the man.

"Hey, wait," he called, approaching the man and his TARDIS.

The man turned, an unidentifiable expression on his face. He looked the Doctor up and down. "Do I know you?"

"Oh, come on, you're smarter than that," the Doctor said, smiling. "I should know."

He paused. "Do you know me?"

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Yes, as a matter of fact, I do know you. And you know me. Only difference is that you had to go and die before you could get to know me very well, and I can't really talk to you anymore unless I go and do this, which is actually a very bad idea because of several obvious reasons. I did know you, of course, before I went and died, which is when you got to know me, except that you weren't really you anymore as much as you were me."

The man wore a confused expression for a short amount of time before his eyes widened in shock.

"What're _you_ doing here? _You, _of all people, should know this is the last place to-" He was brandishing his finger at the newcomer. "Why are you- How are-" He glanced at the Doctor's hair. "You're not ginger!"

The Doctor sighed. "I know. Thin though." He pulled back his coat to show off his waist. Shaking his head, he brought himself back into reality. "Look, I need your help."

"You?"

"Yes. And you're the only person I can turn to."

"Are you sure? You could have destroyed the universe!"

"You think I didn't know that? I _am_ you, after all. You must know the severity of the situation for me to even consider coming to you. It's worth putting off the Slitheen attack." He motioned toward the general Downing Street direction.

"Slitheen?"

The Doctor shook his head. "Never mind. Come along, I'll show you."

He began walking toward his TARDIS, not turning around to see if his previous regeneration was following. He sighed again - a thing he seemed to be doing a lot of today - as he realized just how much trouble he _should _be in.

He went straight into his bedroom and gestured at Martha. The big-eared man followed, walking over to the bed and studying her expression.

"Frozen in time?" he whispered, almost inaudibly. "How? There's only one thing I can think of that can do that and..." he trailed off, looking at the man in the suit, who nodded.

"A DAROTE?" he continued, "That has to be activated by a... did you activate it?"

"Why would I do that?"

"Just asking."

"Do you want to take a look at it? There's some kind of malfunction, and that's not good."

"That's never good. What kind of glitch is it?" He didn't take his eyes off of Martha.

"As far as I can tell, the internal networking won't register the volume capacity of the temporal displacement energy field. Until it knows what it's looking for, it'll raise the volume with an exponential equation."

There was no smile on his face. "Fantastic."

"I used to say that a lot, didn't I..."

His remark was ignored. "I won't let Rose anywhere near that thing, so I better go without her. Where is it?"

The dark-haired Doctor hesitated when Rose's name was mentioned, but didn't make a show of it. "Not far from Aidhiann, around the corner from Jumox, in a space station."

He left to enter the coordinates before his counterpart could see his face.

* * *

Rose left the weak little party. It seemed like she'd only been gone for a few days, and everyone was making such a big deal about it. Well okay, she had been gone a whole year, but it sure didn't feel like it. She knew she had gotten into a fight with the Doctor, but she wanted to make up.

She was about halfway to the spot where the TARDIS had been parked when she saw it. It wasn't where she remembered. She huffed a little, thinking he must have gone somewhere without her.

Opening the blue doors, she saw no one at the console. She headed a few steps down a split-off hallway, opening a random door which seemed to lead to a roomful of... pots?

"Doctor?" she called. Sighing, she leaned against the inside of the door.

Then she heard footsteps.

"Doctor?" Rose went back to the main room. The noises the TARDIS made at takeoff had already started.

When she arrived at the console, there was a man there working the controls. He was in a long brown coat, his hair brown and styled. He was moving his hands along the dials and levers like a master, like he'd been doing it for years. Like the Doctor.

"Who are you?" Rose asked, approaching him slowly. He jumped, pressing a button he surely wasn't supposed to. He turned around quickly, and Rose could almost hear his heart stop in shock. His eyes were wide and he closed his gaping mouth.

"Rose?" he said softly.

"What are you doing here? The Doctor-"

He cut her off by running out of the room. Rose hesitated, confused, before following.


	4. Chapter Four: Meet Rose

**Author's Note:** I decided that the last two chapters were really too small, so I combined them. Remember that while I think that the DAROTE is a clever little trick, I fail at plots so the only thing I did with it was to get 9 and 10 to meet. If you ever want to use it, PM me so I can delve into the device in greater detail. I'd love to read whatever you come up with.  
Again, I'm sorry about not having a completed story, but I'm not going to finish it because, well, there's no way to salvage it without starting over completely. But, it's great for muse-appeasement, right?

* * *

**Chapter Four**

**Meet Rose**

He closed the door behind him. He didn't know why; it wasn't like Rose would just disappear from the TARDIS if he distanced himself. He leaned his head against the door and panted.

"What's wrong?" the short-haired Doctor asked, still sitting by Martha.

"It's... Rose," his counterpart replied, opening his eyes.

"She's onboard?"

He nodded. "Must have sneaked on while we were back here."

"Fantastic. What did you tell her?"

"I..." He had spaced out, that's what he did. He had seen her face, and his brain had literally stopped working.

The Doctor in the leather jacket raised his gaze from Martha, resting it on his future self. What he saw scared him a little, deep inside. His future regeneration's eyes were filled with sadness, almost remorse. There was something in his overall body language that looked dejected.

He rose from his prolonged crouch, walking over to the door. "I'll talk to her," he said, a little softer than he was going for.

She was at the other end of the hallway, stopped, confused. "Doctor?" she called.

"Rose," the Doctor answered, walking up to her. "What are you doing here?"

"I just wanted to talk," she replied, a little halfheartedly. "Who was that?"

"He's... my friend. He needed my help with something."

"He knows how to fly the TARDIS?" Her eyebrows were raised.

"I've... known him a long time."

She nodded. She looked like she didn't believe him.

"So, where are we going?" she asked, conversationally.

"A space station on the other side of the galaxy."

Though she was trying to be critical, Rose was impressed. "When?"

His mouth opened, then closed. "You know, I'm not sure."

The TARDIS shook suddenly from the intensity of landing.

The Doctor's 'friend' emerged from the room, passing by Rose quickly on his way out of the TARDIS. The Doctor took Rose's shoulders and looked straight into her eyes.

"Don't leave the TARDIS," he said, putting as much meaning into it as he could. Hopefully she would realize he actually meant it. He left the TARDIS, following his friend.

--

The Doctor in the dark leather jacket marveled at the machine before him.

"This is... How did you come across it?"

"The TARDIS locked onto its security signal. It sounded Gallifreyan so I naturally couldn't ignore it."

"Naturally. What did you say, about the volume of the temporal displacement energy field? It's rising?"

"Yup."

"Fantastic."

"What's rising?"

The Doctors turned around to see Rose standing in the doorway. The latter regeneration turned back around to push more buttons of the machine.

"Rose, I told you to stay on the TARDIS," the shaven Doctor stated, looking his companion in the eye fiercely.

"I just wanted to see what you guys were up to. How come _he_ knows what that is?" she asked, pointing at it.

"It's not safe," he continued, avoiding her question. "Go back to the TARDIS and stay there."

"Look, I'm not gonna be any trouble. Just let me watch. Wasn't this the whole point of time-traveling, to see history happening right in front of us?"

He hesitated, having been hit in the face by his own words. "Fine. You can stay. But don't touch anything," he added sternly. "I have to get something from the TARDIS." He glanced at the other Doctor, who was completely absorbed in the levers and dials of the DAROTE, before leaving.

"So... What is that?"

"It's a DAROTE," he said, a little too quickly. "Displacement And Removal Of Temporal Energy."

"What is it with Time Lords and acronyms?" Rose muttered.

There was a long silence. Rose crossed her arms, waiting impatiently for the Doctor's friend to start up a conversation. She gave in.

"Who are you?" she asked.

He hesitated. "John."

"John... Smith?"

"No," he said quickly, "Just John."

She looked skeptical. "What planet are you from?"

He hesitated again. "Earth. Why? You from Mars?" His words were said so fast that they were blending together. His voice seemed higher than normal.

"No, I'm from Earth."

There was another pause.

"How do you know the Doctor?" She asked.

"I..." It took him a while to find words. "I used to travel with him."

She shook her head. He didn't sound believable. Why was he lying? Was he covering up for the Doctor? What was the Doctor hiding? She stepped up closer to the DAROTE.

"Why did you stop?" She reached a hand down to lean on it. He saw her out of the corner of his eye.

"Rose, NO!" he yelled, and in one fluid motion he jumped up and pulled her away from the machine. She was startled when she saw his face; it was a familiar mixture of anger, fear, and worry.

"Didn't you hear him warn you? Let me make this clear." He looked her in the eye. "DON'T TOUCH THE DAROTE."

"You know," she interjected, wondering why his expression was familiar, "I never did get to telling you my name."

He looked like he had been slapped. He took a step back, the anger gone from his face.

* * *

"I'm back," the Doctor said, walking in with a few more tools. "Did you make any progress?" He looked up at the two of them. If he hadn't been as brilliant as he was he would have thought they were frozen in time, not unlike the girl in his counterpart's TARDIS.

Then, the counterpart in question snapped out of his little world of surprise and embarrassment to walk briskly back over to the DAROTE and reply.

"Not much. I can't seem to be able to contact the internal networking to alert it to the problem."

Rose was standing there, watching "John," her expression not having changed from confusion. The Doctor walked over to her and got her attention.

"Rose, I need you to go back to the TARDIS. Down the hall, three doors to the left, four to the right, the first staircase you see, go around it and I've tucked a spare sonic screwdriver in a box on the ground. See if you can get it for me, will you?"

She looked like she was being kicked out of a private conversation. Which she was. She nodded, though she didn't want to go, and left the room.

"You do still keep it there, right?" he asked.

"Yup. Had to replace it though."

"Doctor," he said sternly. His counterpart turned around. It was strange, he noted, saying your own name and having someone else respond to it. "What happened to Rose?" he asked frankly, staring himself down.

His future self swallowed, avoiding his gaze. He turned back around to the DAROTE.

"What happened?" he asked again, slowly and with more force.

"Nothing," his regeneration replied, too quickly. His voice was weak.

"Then why are you traveling with that girl?"

"Her name is Martha."

"_What happened to Rose?_"

"She hasn't died, if that's what you're getting at."

"Then why do you act like she had? What did you do to her?"

"Why would I do anything to her? It isn't like I abandoned her, like Sarah Jane."

He hesitated. "What has that got to do with anything?"

"Just ran into her, popped into my head..."

"You saw Sarah Jane?"

"Yeah, it was a surprise for me too. Met her at school."

"What?"

"I shouldn't tell you. Possibility of unraveling the space-time continuum and all that."

"_Back _to the point. You've got to stop acting like..." He hesitated. "Rose is going to notice something, if she hasn't already. It'd be too much for her if she found out."

"I know that already. I _am_ you, if you don't remember. Besides, it isn't like I invited her."

"Just... shush and get to work on the DAROTE. Act like..."

"John Smith?"

"Guess so."

"I miss him. Poor bloke..."

"What?"

"Never mind."

They turned simultaneously back to the DAROTE and started to translate the volume preceptor feed to the internal networking and mainframe. Or something like that.


End file.
